Ethics – Irregular Timeshttp://irregulartimes.com
News Unfit for PrintThu, 17 Aug 2017 10:45:58 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.1http://irregulartimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/cropped-irregulartimesclock2-32x32.pngEthics – Irregular Timeshttp://irregulartimes.com
3232332414722 GOP Senators Encourage Trump Into Anti-Environment Extremismhttp://irregulartimes.com/2017/05/31/the-22-gop-senators-pushing-trump-into-anti-environment-extremism/
http://irregulartimes.com/2017/05/31/the-22-gop-senators-pushing-trump-into-anti-environment-extremism/#respondWed, 31 May 2017 17:08:36 +0000http://irregulartimes.com/?p=52621Today, the White House signaled that Donald Trump will pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement. The USA will join Syria and Nicaragua, the only other nations on the planet that refuse to participate in the international agreement to take action on climate change.

The Paris aggreement is the mildest, meekness international climate change imaginable. It doesn’t impose any requirements on the signatories. Under the Paris agreement, all actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are entirely voluntary. Climatologists have pointed out that even if the voluntary suggestions of the Paris agreement were followed by every signatory, it wouldn’t be enough to keep climate change from surging forward at a dangerous pace.

So, why would Donald Trump pull the United States out of such a mild, meek, non-committal arrangement? Trump wants to send a signal that as long as he is in charge, the United States won’t even take symbolic, gentle action to confront the growing climate crisis. Donald Trump himself refuses even to acknowledge that climate change is real, much less that it is caused by human activity, though scientific research has firmly established the grave nature of anthropogenic climate change.

Today’s announcement doesn’t merely indicate a problem with Donald Trump’s attitude. Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris agreement was made at the urging of 22 Republican U.S. senator, who all signed a letter sent to the White House, reading, “We urge you to make a clean exit from the Paris Agreement so that your Administration can follow through on its commitment to rescind the Clean Power Plan.” These Republican senators are seeking to keep the United States dependent on antiquated fossil fuels technologies that don’t just pump dangerous amounts of greenhouse gases into our planet’s atmosphere, but also release toxic pollutants into America’s air and water, leading to the early deaths of huge numbers of Americans every year.

Donald Trump may be more of a loudmouth than other politicians in Washington D.C., but his ideological extremism and determination to ignore science are frighteningly in accord with that of the Republican establishment.

It’s little coincidence that these 22 anti-environment Republicans have taken huge amounts of money from the dirty fossil fuels corporations that stand the most to lose from action to confront the climate crisis. The senators who sent the letter demanding an exit from the Paris agreement have each received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the oil and gas industry Senators Inhofe and Cornyn, have taken, in the last five years alone, over million dollars each. That’s just counting above-the-board payments, ignoring the additional huge amounts of money that have gone to benefit these senators in the form of independent expenditures and indirect PAC payments.

Opposition to climate action isn’t just a matter of a betrayal to clean air. It’s also devastating to clean politics.

]]>http://irregulartimes.com/2017/05/31/the-22-gop-senators-pushing-trump-into-anti-environment-extremism/feed/052621US Embassy Promotes Trump Business At Mar-A-Lago With Luxuriant Hyperbolehttp://irregulartimes.com/2017/04/25/us-embassy-promotes-trump-business-at-mar-a-lago-with-luxuriant-hyperbole/
http://irregulartimes.com/2017/04/25/us-embassy-promotes-trump-business-at-mar-a-lago-with-luxuriant-hyperbole/#respondTue, 25 Apr 2017 23:04:39 +0000http://irregulartimes.com/?p=52360When Donald Trump became President, he assured us all that there would be an absolute separation of his personal businesses and his work in the White House. Months later, that separation has still failed to materialize. Donald Trump’s personal financial fortunes are thickly tangled up with his work as President, creating a number of opportunities for blatant corruption, including both bribery of President Trump as well as the use of government funds to promote Trump’s business interests.

Yesterday, one aspect of the rampant corruption in the Trump Administration came to light. It seems that the State Department under Rex Tillerson directed the U.S. embassies in the United Kingdom and Albania to promote Mar-a-Lago, one of Trump’s for-profit private clubs, as a place where people can meet with Trump.

The embassies depicted Trump’s club, which requires the payment of hundreds of thousands of dollars in membership fees, as a “Winter White House”, where business can be conducted with Donald Trump as if he were in the Oval Office. The message was clear: If you want access to the President of the United States, you have to pay him for it.

The promotion of the Mar-a-Lago business was clearly written with Trump’s input, containing his penchant for hyperbole. Gushing over the club’s excessive design, the embassy web sites celebrated the story of the mansion’s construction by a “socialite” – a term that the wealthy use to refer to an heir to a fortune who goes to parties instead of working. The State Department promotional material read, “When socialite and cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post built Mar-a-Lago — Spanish for ‘Sea to Lake’ — in 1927, she spared no expense. The 114-room mansion sits on 8 hectares of land…”

…and hold it right there. Only someone who was born a millionaire could write such nonsense. If Marjorie Merriweather Post really spared no expense, then why did she build only 114 rooms? Why did Merriweather spare the expense of a 15th hectare? For the elites like Marjorie Merriweather Post and Donald Trump who inherit their wealth, greed has no limit. For those obsessed with luxury, there is never enough. There could always be more. Once a person goes so far as to feel the need for 114 rooms, that person has lost all perspective on genuine need.

That’s the President of the United States in a nutshell. Donald Trump and his friends have more money than they could ever spend, but this week, Trump is announcing tax cuts for wealthy families and powerful corporations that already hide most of their income to avoid paying taxes at the same rate that working Americans do. At the same time, Trump is slashing the government programs that keep working families from sliding into poverty due to the stingy wages offered by their corporate employers.

Donald Trump’s economic plan is designed to send more money to people who are already living in obscene luxury of the sort on display at Mar-a-Lago, and he’s doing it on the backs of working Americans, while using the taxpayer-funded institutions of the federal government to pump money into his personal businesses, inviting foreign governments and businesses to pay him emoluments that are explicitly against the law, as established by Section 6 of Article 1 of the Constitution of the United States of America.

In response to Americans’ protests, the U.S. State Department has removed the public messages urging foreign governments and businesses to pay to join Donald Trump’s private club. The networks of corruption to which these messages referred, however, are still running at full tilt.

]]>http://irregulartimes.com/2017/04/25/us-embassy-promotes-trump-business-at-mar-a-lago-with-luxuriant-hyperbole/feed/052360Put It On the Ground — The Trump Lyricshttp://irregulartimes.com/2017/04/11/put-it-on-the-ground-the-trump-lyrics/
http://irregulartimes.com/2017/04/11/put-it-on-the-ground-the-trump-lyrics/#respondWed, 12 Apr 2017 00:23:07 +0000http://irregulartimes.com/?p=52311Eager to participate in the Trump Tax Marches across the country this Saturday, but getting tired of the “hey hey, ho ho?” Well, here’s a little something for you to liven up the proceedings.

Put It On the Ground — Donald Trump Version
(Music by Bill Wolff / Original Words by Ray Glaser)

Oh! If you want Trump’s tax returns all you have to do
Is go and ask him for them and he will give them to you
Yes, he will give them to you, my friends, he will give them to you
His tax returns, all that he earns, oh he will give them to you

Ohhhh, put it on the ground
spread it all around
dig it with a hoe
it will make your flowers grow

For billionaires like Donald Trump I’m shedding bitter tears
He’s suffered under audits now for twelve horrendous years
For twelve horrendous years, my friends, for twelve horrendous years
Poor little boy, he’s had no joy for twelve horrendous years.

Ohhhh, put it on the ground
spread it all around
dig it with a hoe
it will make your flowers grow

Tricky Dicky Nixon shared his tax returns with you
And Carter, Clinton, Bush, and Bush, and Reagan did it too
But Trump can’t give ’em to you, my friends, no Trump can’t give ’em to you
It’s just too tough, he’s had enough, he just can’t give ’em to you. Ohhhhhh…

Ohhhh, put it on the ground
spread it all around
dig it with a hoe
it will make your flowers grow

Though Trump won’t share his tax returns, he has nothing to hide
I swear he hasn’t taken Russian Rubles on the side
No Rubles on the side, my friends, no Rubles on the side
Though he’s been tight with Muscovites, he has nothing to hide

Ohhhh, put it on the ground
spread it all around
dig it with a hoe
it will make your flowers grow

He’s raking in the money here, He’s raking it in there
But he won’t tell you nuthin’, and you must admit it’s fair
You must admit it’s fair, my friends, you must admit it’s fair
The rules are for the little fools, you must admit that’s fair

Ohhhh, put it on the ground
spread it all around
dig it with a hoe
it will make your flowers grow

]]>http://irregulartimes.com/2017/04/11/put-it-on-the-ground-the-trump-lyrics/feed/052311Devin Nunes Can’t Be Trusted, Proves America Needs Special Prosecutor To Investigate Trump And Russiahttp://irregulartimes.com/2017/03/22/devin-nunes-cant-be-trusted-proves-america-needs-special-prosecutor-to-investigate-trump-and-russia/
http://irregulartimes.com/2017/03/22/devin-nunes-cant-be-trusted-proves-america-needs-special-prosecutor-to-investigate-trump-and-russia/#respondThu, 23 Mar 2017 03:08:00 +0000http://irregulartimes.com/?p=52204Imagine there was a criminal investigation for bank robbery, and the county sheriff was seen going straight to the home of the main suspect to tell the suspect exactly how the police investigators were seeking to gather evidence against him. The sheriff would be fired.

By his own account, U.S. Representative Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, acted just like that corrupt county sheriff.

Devin Nunes was one of Donald Trump’s top supporters during the 2016 presidential election, and during the transition between Obama and Trump. Despite this stark political partnership, congressional Republicans decided that Nunes would be the best person to lead the investigation of Donald Trump’s collaboration with Russian spies who attacked the United States last year.

While Nunes was at the White House, sharing the information with Donald Trump in order to help Trump thwart the Nunes’s own investigation, Democrats in the House Intelligence Committee weren’t shown the information, and still don’t know exactly what it includes.

In order to protect Trump, Devin Nunes is withholding evidence involving Donald Trump’s communications, possibly with Russian spies, from his own committee’s investigation.

This purposeful undermining of the investigation by the House Intelligence Committee, by its own chairman, shows that the current Republican-led congressional investigations cannot be trusted. They’re a whitewash.

If he cares at all about ethics and integrity, Devin Nunes will resign now.

In his place, Congress should appoint a special prosecutor with full powers to launch a genuine investigation of ties between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin’s spies. Only with a special prosecutor can the American people trust that we know the truth about what really happened during the 2016 presidential election.

]]>http://irregulartimes.com/2017/03/22/devin-nunes-cant-be-trusted-proves-america-needs-special-prosecutor-to-investigate-trump-and-russia/feed/052204Jeff Sessions Coverup for Trump Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price?http://irregulartimes.com/2017/03/17/jeff-sessions-coverup-for-trump-secretary-of-health-and-human-services-tom-price/
http://irregulartimes.com/2017/03/17/jeff-sessions-coverup-for-trump-secretary-of-health-and-human-services-tom-price/#respondSat, 18 Mar 2017 03:41:47 +0000http://irregulartimes.com/?p=52178It’s bad enough that Jeff Sessions, as Attorney General the top law enforcement official in the United States, has been caught lying under oath but refuses to resign.

Bharara was investigating Donald Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Price, from criminal corruption during his time as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Tom Price traded hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stock from health care companies, including the biotechnology company Innate Immunotherapeutics, while he was pushing legislation through Congress that directly affected the companies whose stock he was trading. In one instance, Tom Price bought stock in a healthcare company called Zimmer Biomet, then introduced legislation just days later to obstruct government regulations that would have hurt the company’s profits.

That’s a criminal act, a form of insider trading that violates the STOCK Act.

Is it a coincidence that just as Preet Bharara was closing in on criminal charges against a member of Donald Trump’s cabinet, Jeff Sessions had him fired?

The Trump White House can say whatever it wants to about this matter, but after so many lies from Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions, Americans have no reason to believe their justifications.

]]>http://irregulartimes.com/2017/03/17/jeff-sessions-coverup-for-trump-secretary-of-health-and-human-services-tom-price/feed/052178America Can’t Trust Jeff Sessions. Resign, Sessions. Resign.http://irregulartimes.com/2017/03/02/america-cant-trust-jeff-sessions-resign-sessions-resign/
http://irregulartimes.com/2017/03/02/america-cant-trust-jeff-sessions-resign-sessions-resign/#commentsThu, 02 Mar 2017 15:09:48 +0000http://irregulartimes.com/?p=52052I don’t know anyone who thought that the next step in Donald Trump’s Golden Showers Gate scandal of involvement with Vladimir Putin’s Russian spies would be the revelation of deception by Jeff Sessions. It had seemed that the problems with Sessions were restricted to Alabama-style racial hatred.

Yet, here we are. This morning, Jeff Session’s career teeters on the brink of self-destruction.

As Attorney General of the United States, Jeff Sessions is supposed to be leading the investigation into Donald Trump’s involvement in Russian attacks on the United States last year, it now seems that Sessions has been leading the cover up of it.

Last night, it was revealed that the FBI, which is under Sessions’s authority in the Department of Justice, has been investigating Sessions for holding secret meetings with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The existence of two such meetings are now known, and more may be discovered. Sessions met with Kislyak without letting anyone know about it at the same time that Russian spies were launching attacks designed to make sure that Donald Trump would win the 2016 presidential election. At the time, Jeff Sessions was working as a part of the Trump campaign.

Twice during his Senate confirmation hearing, after he had taken an oath of honesty on penalty of perjury, Jeff Sessions told the Senate that he had not been in contact with any Russian officials during the time of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. We now know that he lied.

An Attorney General of the United States who has lied under oath is a criminal. The word of Jeff Sessions is now garbage. He can’t be trusted by anyone. His continued occupation of the title of Attorney General is unraveling the rule of law in the United States in a time when the electoral foundations of our democracy are failing.

Mere recusal from the investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia will not be sufficient to deal with this part of the crisis.

Jeff Sessions must resign.

However, even that isn’t enough. As Americans look at the growing scandal of collusion between Donald Trump’s political network and Vladimir Putin’s Russian spy attack against the 2016 presidential election, they are left wondering whether there anyone in the Trump Administration wasn’t in on the criminal conspiracy. Was Betsy DeVos talking to Russian spies too? Did the Senate Republicans who complained about the “slow” pace of the confirmation of Jeff Sessions know that he had something to hide?

A special prosecutor needs to be appointed – a non-partisan figure who was not part of the Trump campaign. This special prosecutor needs to be given the power to examine classified documents and tax records, to compel Donald Trump himself to testify in public, under oath, and to investigate the involvement of members of Congress in the scandal, rooting out the Russian rot wherever it may lead.

]]>http://irregulartimes.com/2017/03/02/america-cant-trust-jeff-sessions-resign-sessions-resign/feed/552052Confirmed Blackmail Against Trump and Manafort By Pro-Russian Ukranianshttp://irregulartimes.com/2017/02/23/confirmed-blackmail-against-trump-and-manafort-by-pro-russian-ukranians/
http://irregulartimes.com/2017/02/23/confirmed-blackmail-against-trump-and-manafort-by-pro-russian-ukranians/#commentsFri, 24 Feb 2017 01:16:10 +0000http://irregulartimes.com/?p=51992Just last month, the world learned about a British intelligence dossier assembled by a former MI6 spy, detailing what appeared to be a years-long collaboration between Donald Trump and Russia’s spy agency. The dossier alleged that spies working for dictator Vladimir Putin had assembled a kompromat – a portfolio full of shocking information to be used for blackmail – on Trump. Portions of that dossier have already been confirmed by U.S. intelligence agencies.

At the time the blackmail plot was executed, Manafort was Donald Trump’s presidential campaign manager.

One of the messages referred to Manafort as “Count” – a nickname long ago given to Manafort from Republican Party operatives. It reads:

“Honorable Count!

At the time of my investigation I have discovered bulletproof facts regarding the person – Ukraine resident whos signature is inside the Yanukovich accounting book and who was responsible for rendering assets to you personally for your consulting services during organized meetings.

One of such meetings with Donadl Trump took place on 06.17.2012 with close Yanukovich affiliate – governor of Cherkassy – Mr.S.Tulub.

Considering all the facts and evidence that are in my possession, and before possible decision whether to pass this to NABU or FBI I would like to get your opinion on this and maybe your way to work things out that will persuade me to do otherwise.

I think you and Mr Trump will work out a way to solve this problem of yours. Otherwise official investigation that will be reinforced by the facts that are in my possession will reach also the Federal Government.

With all respect

Sergio

you can reach me at my iMessage (its encrypted) at leshchenko@mail.ru”

A second message from mail.pravda@icloud.com read:

“I need to get in touch with Paul i need to share some important information with him regarding ukraine investigation

I actually have proofs that he received money

If I dont get any reply from you iam gonaa pass it on to the fbi and Ukranian authorities including media

Tell him he has 24 h before i leak all the shit to cops

As soon as he comes back to me i will pass you documents”

Pravda is the name of a Cold War Soviet government propaganda publication. All misspellings are grammatical mistakes are from the original messages.

“Mr.S.Tulub” in the first message refers to Serhiy Tulub, the Minister for Coal in the Ukranian national government. The first message appears to come from a pro-Russian member of the Ukranian parliament, Serhiy Leshchenko.

The fact that compromising information about any meeting between Donald Trump and Serhiy Tulub was not released to the media last year suggests that either Trump and Manafort complied with the demands of the Ukranian blackmailers, or that the blackmail plot failed in some other way.

It is not yet known whether Manafort and Trump agreed to the conditions of the Ukrainian blackmail.

It is also not yet known how many other foreign officials have compromising information about Donald Trump that could be used in a blackmail conspiracy to control his actions.

Many Republicans in Congress are still blocking attempts to investigate these blackmail plots.

]]>http://irregulartimes.com/2017/02/23/confirmed-blackmail-against-trump-and-manafort-by-pro-russian-ukranians/feed/151992Like Satan’s Girl Scout Cookies: White House hawks Boss’ Daughter’s Third World Sweatshop Productshttp://irregulartimes.com/2017/02/10/like-satans-girl-scout-cookies-white-house-hawks-boss-daughters-third-world-sweatshop-products/
http://irregulartimes.com/2017/02/10/like-satans-girl-scout-cookies-white-house-hawks-boss-daughters-third-world-sweatshop-products/#commentsSat, 11 Feb 2017 02:36:52 +0000http://irregulartimes.com/?p=51892A seasonal annoyance in the pre-Trump workplace was Girl Scout cookie time: your boss or manager would wave an order form in your face for their daughter’s Girl Scout cookie drive and, for the sake of politeness and maybe your job, you’d have to buy a few boxes of thin mints. They don’t taste that good, but they don’t taste bad either, and at least they’re made in American factories where workers have some labor rights and protections.

“Go buy Ivanka’s stuff, that is what I would tell you — I hate shopping and I’m going to go get some myself today…. This is just, it’s a wonderful line. I own some of it. I’m fully, I’m going to give a free commercial here. Go buy it today, everybody. You can find it online.”

Kellyanne Conway wasn’t making these remarks as a private citizen. She is an employee of the Donald Trump White House, using the backdrop of the White House and a U.S. Government American Flag to sell the boss’ daughter’s clothing line. When I say “backdrop,” I mean that literally. She made these remarks with the White House logo and the American flag on either side of her face:

While President Donald Trump says he’s going bring jobs back to the United States, his administration is busy using its political power to promote his daughter’s business that pays its third-world workers a mere pittance. This is what Republicans mean when they talk about “moral values.”

]]>http://irregulartimes.com/2017/02/10/like-satans-girl-scout-cookies-white-house-hawks-boss-daughters-third-world-sweatshop-products/feed/351892Map of April Protests Demanding Donald Trump Release His Tax Returns (1-29-17)http://irregulartimes.com/2017/01/29/map-of-april-protests-demanding-donald-trump-release-his-tax-returns-1-29-17/
http://irregulartimes.com/2017/01/29/map-of-april-protests-demanding-donald-trump-release-his-tax-returns-1-29-17/#respondSun, 29 Jan 2017 05:30:57 +0000http://irregulartimes.com/?p=5179874% of Americans want Donald Trump to act like every other president in modern American history and release his tax returns. Donald Trump won’t do it. He has something to hide. Something that could be financial ties to Russia. Something that could be a lack of charity. Something that could be an investment in unethical business. Something that could be overseas sweatshop use. Something that could be corruption. Whatever it is, Donald Trump is violating the ethical standards of the presidency by hiding his tax returns.

It’s time to see those tax returns. And so Americans are organizing a series of Trump Tax Marches on April 15, 2017. They’re going to be all over the place, and we’re not just talking about places in the Northeast and the Pacific coast. Trump Tax marches will be held in the deep South, in the Midwest and in the Mountains too. Take a look for yourself at this map of locations for the Trump Tax Marches of April 15…

…and here are links to the most thorough set of known Tax March planning pages across the U.S.:

Keep in mind, this map is just current as of April 15. You can expect the locations to expand further in coming days. For a good list of most of the locations of the Trump Tax Marches, visit taxmarch.org.

]]>http://irregulartimes.com/2017/01/29/map-of-april-protests-demanding-donald-trump-release-his-tax-returns-1-29-17/feed/051798Donald Trump Broke His Promise To Separate From Businesses On Inauguration Dayhttp://irregulartimes.com/2017/01/23/donald-trump-broke-his-promise-to-separate-from-businesses-on-inauguration-day/
http://irregulartimes.com/2017/01/23/donald-trump-broke-his-promise-to-separate-from-businesses-on-inauguration-day/#commentsMon, 23 Jan 2017 13:45:11 +0000http://irregulartimes.com/?p=51751Earlier this month, at the first press conference with Donald Trump in over 6 months, Trump promised that he would separate from his businesses by Inauguration Day.

Actually, the suggestion that Trump would separate from his businesses wasn’t really truthful. Trump actually refused to place his businesses in a blind trust. He only proposed to hand his businesses off to his adult sons, with whom he would remain in regular contact. Ethics lawyers called this arrangement “nakedly unconstitutional”.

Donald Trump did not hand his businesses over to his sons by Inauguration Day. He has remained in direct control of all his businesses across the country and around the world as President of the United States.

What’s more, ProPublica discovered that Donald Trump did not dissolve the corrupt Trump Foundation, as Trump had promised to do.

CREW explains, “Since Trump refused to divest from his businesses, he is now getting cash and favors from foreign governments, through guests and events at his hotels, leases in his buildings, and valuable real estate deals abroad. Trump does business with countries like China, India, Indonesia and the Philippines, and now that he is President, his company’s acceptance of any benefits from the governments of those countries violates the Constitution.”